M*o*O*n - VIDEO

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a postcard from paradise

To all our friends & families
North of 24.55 degrees, Latitude
&
South of 83 degrees, Fahrenheit

"Greetings from Key West"

what our live's need & our heart's desire

It seems like we're all looking for something.

I'm not talking about misplaced car keys or a tax refund check in the mail, I'm thinking about metaphysical stuff like love or happiness, inner peace or some meaning in our lives, Buddha consciousness or contact with the Creator.
So we search the world around us, reading libraries of self-help books, enrolling in on-line wellness classes or spending an hour a week in therapy, or church, just trying to get a handle on how to look and where to find what we believe our live's need and our heart's desire.

While books and classes and couches and pews can be helpful in terms of inspiring minds to pursue a particular path, at the end of the day, the one and only place in the outside world to look for love, happiness, inner peace, meaning, consciousness or contact; is in the mirror.

They are all within you and there's nothing to find, but everything to recognize.

Imagine this tree stump is your most true self. Free of ego, desire, prejudice and judgement. That's your center or soul and the place, within you, where all the love, happiness, inner peace, meaning, higher consciousness and spiritual contact are alive and well.

This is you in your deepest identity. However it appears to you, accept and embrace it. It's the perfect reflection of all you've ever been and done in this and all your lifetimes.
There is no right or wrong, good or bad about it.
It's beyond all that.

Hold your center, draw it closer to consciousness and realize that the love or happiness, inner peace or meaning in your life, Buddha consciousness or contact with the Creator you wanted, was right there the whole time.
You needed only to recognize it.

forests of the tide

"At the intersection of land and sea, mangrove forests support a wealth of life, from starfish to people, and may be more important to the health of the planet than we ever realized."
(Kennedy Warne, National Geographic)

collectibles

I've been thinking about collectibles and antiques for the last couple of days, since I received and e-mail from a guy who's trying to sell his "classic collection" of Playboy magazines dating back to the '70's, for 300 bucks and, I could check it out on Craigslist.

So I did and sure enough he had 3 knee-high stacks of magazines and I had to wonder, if he cared enough about the "articles" in Playboy to keep them in "pristine condition" and safe from his wife for 40 years, what would make him want to sell them now, for such a desperately small amount of money.

Just for grins and giggles, I scrolled down the Craigslist "collectibles" page a little more and you know, the girlie magazine dude was nowhere near alone. Also for sale were collections of Haitian Bottle Art, a Pepsi Cola Phone and an Atocha coin, 50 DVD Porn movies, a Spiderman cookie jar, a Neptune Fantasy Barbie (whatever that is) and the complete season of 1969 Topps Baseball cards (including that year's world champion Mets) in "EX condition".

It didn't surprise me that there was so much stuff for sale, people are always trying to sell their stuff, but that it was all priced at desperately small amounts of money,
said something.
It was a marketplace of people parting with any and everything of intrinsic or emotional value to them for a miserably few extra bucks.

While my sentimental right brain was asking, "why would anyone sell off the treasures that define them for 30 pieces of silver?", simultaneously my practical left brain was screaming, "it's the economy, stupid!".

Sure I know as well as you do, for all but the Wall Street bankster bonus babies, cash is gettin' harder to come by, (and in my opinion, we ain't seen the half of it yet) but what does it say about us as a culture when, at the first crunch of crisis, we start selling off the things we hold most dear, the treasures that bring our hearts and minds a little pleasure, the stuff we picked up along the way, that helps us remember where we came from?

anne mckee annual fine art auction

Approximately 90 original paintings, sculpture, photography, fiber art, ceramics and more are to be auctioned to raise money for the fund that provides project-based grants to individual artists.

The next Anne McKee Fine Art Auction will happen this coming Sat, Jan. 23, 2010 at Fort East Martello Museum, 3501 S. Roosevelt Blvd., Key West.
Viewing from 7 PM, Auction at 8 PM

$25 admission Includes hors d'oeuvres, champagne, open bar.

click the image to go to the auction website

You may pre-register for auction paddles by sending your name, e-mail address and phone number to mckeefund@aol.com

The art has been be available for pre-viewing at the museum since Tues, Jan. 12, with no admission fee.

diggin' on frances & layin' some pipe

This has been the corner of Frances Street at Southard for the past handful of days.

An easy opportunity to study the interesting geometric shape relationships that work-sites and heavy equipment always offer and, a twisted excuse to write a vaguely suggestive headline.

artman's alphabet - Z

reef relief founders

Online Coral Reef Resource Now Available at ReefReliefFounders.com

Reef Relief founders Craig and DeeVon Quirolo retired from the grassroots organization last July, only to begin a major project to provide an online resource on coral reefs. Their new website provides all the award-winning educational tools, grassroots strategies, project reports and images of coral reefs assembled during their work over the past 23 years in the Florida Keys and throughout the Caribbean
protecting coral reefs.
You can find it at www.reefrelieffounders.com.

“We just wanted to insure that others can learn from our experiences and continue the important work of saving endangered coral reefs,” noted DeeVon. "We hope to inspire a new generation of sea fans!”

The new website features blogs on reef news, science and even offshore oil, along with over 10,000 free images of coral reefs from coral surveys in the Florida Keys and elsewhere.

So check it out, make it a favorite and add a link from your site to this new resource for saving endangered coral reefs.
For more information, email dquirolo@gmail.com
or go to www.reefrelieffounders.com.

old key west

maxine's dreams

On July 22nd 1951, Tsygan and Dezik went into a low Earth orbit. They were two stray dogs, trained for spaceflight by the Soviet space program.
(The Russians loved sending dogs into space)

The dogs were trained to sit in tiny compartments for better than two weeks at a time and spun around in a centrifuge.

Some of the dogs that went up actually made it back alive!
But then they'd only get sent up again.

The pup pictured here, is Laika.
Launched into space on November 3rd 1957, she died, apparently, of stress and over heating during the flight.
Laika is now remembered as a Soviet national hero.

keys Q&A

Q: What does a stone pelican poop?
A: Marbles.

Q: Where can I reach you?
A: Call me at the branch office.